Journey across the realms
by FBSnightstalker
Summary: A bunch of kids each with their individual powers embark upon a mission to save both their realm and their enemies. Any reviews greatly appreciated! (rather long)


Chapter 1 Supernatural

**Zukes, Alice and Web were sitting in the lounge watching the news, something about banks and war normal stuff, when a loud crash came from the landing and Gadzooks came hurtling in through the door with his tail on fire, Alice put it out with a flick of her fingers. ****  
****Tom poked his head round the door "sorry everyone" he said. Tom was an amateur magician, not the kind that makes rabbits appear out of their hats and all that rubbish Tom was the kind that could make a rabbit appear out of thin air then turn it into an elephant providing there was enough room. He was always trying out new tricks. Now you may think this is abit strange or "supernatural" well hay it is and I haven't even told you what the others are capable of yet! ****  
****Alice is a pyrotechnic that means that she can control fire with her thoughts, Gadzookes is the house cat unfortunately for him he ends up getting used for most of Tom's experiments, he's been multicolored he's been 5 foot tall and he's even had two massive tusks! Zukes is a telekinetic he can move stuff with his mind and Web well he's even stranger than the rest.**

**Today was just a normal Sunday for the kids nothing much happened on Sunday's. Alice was the most affected by these boring mornings, sure it was nice she could have a lie-in but when she woke up there was nothing to do. Any other child of her age would be out with their friends, hanging round the mall or arcade in town yet she had to stay inside incase something happened, which it usually didn't, for some reason all the monsters seemed to take Sunday off.**

"**This is sooo boring" said Alice from the sofa "shup grumpy" said Zukes "just because you would rather be in town shopping or what ever else it is you girls do." "Oh no she wouldn't" said Tom "she'd rather be snogging that chav Craig"**

"**No I wouldn't! And his names Chris actually"**

"**Give it a rest you two" said Zukes "Tom stop winding your sister up and Alice you know what we do and why we do it so stop complaining anyway uncle Paul is coming round today."**

"**Is he bringing Jake?" asked Web "I hope not that little bugger tore the sofa into shreds last time he came" said Zukes**

"**That's because Tom turned it into a stuffed deer and then back! So it was only Jake's instincts please can you ask Uncle Paul to bring him please?"**

"**Oh ok I'll think about it" said Zukes giving in to Web's pleads. He had to admit Jake was a cute little thing really even if he was a wild tiger cub that ripped sofa's to shreds and ate the soap.**

"**Thanks Zukes" said Web. Now he could try out a new idea of his. He loved the fact that he had more than one skill and that the others didn't. Sometimes Tom teased him saying he had no powers but he did he just didn't like showing them off and oh was Tom gonna pay, next time they went to the zoo Tom would find a few snakes down his trousers, actually better make that spiders Zukes would kill him if he put snakes on Tom, of course they wouldn't be poisonous ones however much Web wanted revenge he didn't want to kill anyone especially not his own brother.**

**About three hours later Uncle Paul arrived bringing Jake with him. When he arrived Jake rushed straight up the stairs to Web's room, funny thought Paul it seemed like those two new exactly what the other was thinking and could communicate before they were in sight of each other. But then you never knew with these kids one day they had been ordinary children the next, fire, moving objects and mice coming out of the fridge.**

**Paul wasn't really the children's uncle he had just happened to be looking after them when they first discovered their powers, he remembered it well after about five minutes there were fire engines, police and ambulance's all outside his house which was on fire, floating three foot above the ground! It had been a very busy day wiping all those memories.**

**Zukes came down the hall "hi Paul hows things at home?" he said**

"**Alright I spose, if you don't include those two ghouls in my attic making a racket every time I go to the loo. How about you lot any more teachers that I have to wipe because Tom's been showing off"**

**Zukes laughed "no your alright he's been pretty good these last couple of weeks, talking of the devil here he comes now"**

"**The devil were? I could turn him into a cockroach if he stayed still or a pig that would be good, shame I haven't mastered turning living things into inanimate objects yet like turning Web into a chair now that would be amusing, where's Gadzookes gone?"**

"**No! You are not trying that kind of magic on Gadzookes" said Zukes**

"**Ok" said Tom smiling mischievously **

Chapter 2 Monday morning's

**Web woke up with a start, his duvet was on the floor and Jake was curled up on top of it, Web smiled, having Jake around was fun, it was a shame he wasn't allowed to take him into school, oh no school! Web jumped out of bed, waking up Jake and rushed to his wardrobe, he grabbed a plastic bag and his school shirt he then tipped the contents of the plastic bag into a bowl on the floor in which Jake then buried his head. Web then concentrated on getting dressed, shirt on, trousers on, find a clean pair of socks and then get tie, Web looked at his tie, great it was all ripped and soggy at the bottom. That was the one problem with Jake he did like to rip things.**

**Web rushed out of his door and down the stairs where he crashed into Uncle Paul "hay kiddo slow down"**

"**Sorry uncle"**

**Paul laughed "you youngsters always rushing here and there any way have you seen Jake any where?"**

"**Yeh he's in my room"**

"**Ok, you haven't been feeding him raw meat again have you?"**

"**No Uncle Paul" said Web hoping that Jake would have finished it by the time Paul had got up the stairs. He then rushed through the hall and into the kitchen grabbing a piece of toast off the side**

"**Bit late waking up this morning aren't you" said Zukes**

"**Yeh but its Monday and any way I can't see Tom or Alice anywhere"**

"**Ok I'll let you off as it's the last week of term but only if you wake the others up"**

"**Why can't you?"**

"**Because I've got to go to college in around five minutes"**

"**Ok I'll wake Tom first then"**

"**Why?"**

"**No reason"**

**Web rushed up stairs to wake Tom, as soon as he opened Tom's door Gadzookes rushed out, typical Tom trying out new spells again. When he stepped in the first thing he noticed was a massive pile of duvet's and pillows on Toms bed, Web grabbed the bottom one and pulled, out came Tom still half asleep but when Web told him that Zukes was going to college in a moment he got straight up with a grin on his face "brill" he said, then rushed around getting his clothes and putting them on. As soon as he was dressed him and Web rushed down the stairs and watched as Zukes went out the back door.**

**You see what the two boys were so exited about was Zukes skateboard, it was how he got to college every day, but when he got outside there was a surprise for him instead of his skateboard there was now a giant fluffy pink teddy bear! "TOM!" Shouted Zukes "Get here now!"**

"**Here comes the hard part" said Tom with a smile on his face and walked out to see Zukes. As soon as he walked out the bear was slammed into him with such force that he was sent flying back into the kitchen "okay I'll turn it back" said Tom rubbing his back from where he had crashed into the dishwasher.**

"**No not okay turn it back now otherwise you will be doing all the chores for the next month!"**

"**Ok sorry Zukes"**

**Zukes hated having to shout at his brother but if he didn't who else was going to keep him in line. He had to admit he could see the funny side of the bear.**

**When Zukes had gone Web went to wake Alice up. He knocked on Alice's door and then went in. Alice was already up and dressed "hay kido, how did the big bear go down?"**

"**Not to well Tom's got all of this months chores"**

"**I did warn him not to do it"**

"**Yeh I seem to recall you asking him if he could turn it into a t-rex"**

"**It might have made things more interesting though and got us out of school"**

"**Spose anyway we gotta go soon so you'd better come downstairs and get your toast"**

"**Did Zukes make it?"**

"**Yeh"**

"**Ok I think I'll pass then."**

**After breakfast the three kids left the house, locking the door behind them and walked down the road to the bus stop.**

Chapter 3 School

**Tom was practically bouncing on his seat this was the last lesson he had before games and today was the day that he proved himself to the football coach. Today the under 12's had a game against another school and today Tom was going to score.**

**It was Wednesday afternoon one lesson before lunch, Tom was in French class, Web was in I.C.T and Alice had a free period. Normally Alice would be studying for her next lesson or doing her homework but today she was walking round the grounds near the lake. She had art class after lunch and she hadn't done her homework which was to draw a landscape. Alice sat down on one of the benches over looking the lake and took out her sketch pad and pencil and began to draw. She'd always been good at drawing ever since she had had her first lesson at primary school.**

**It was while she was midway through drawing the lake that she saw the swamp goblin climbing up the bank, Alice sighed something's never changed with a flick of her fingers she sent a tongue of flame shooting at it, the goblin shriveled up and then disappeared in a small explosion of ashes.**

**Then suddenly around twenty of the creatures came over the bank it was only when Alice looked closer that she saw that there were not just goblins in the group but pixies as well, normally she wouldn't have been that bothered and just fried them but different types of creatures don't normally work together, Alice thought this in about ten seconds then vaporized the creatures all at once anyway, you could never be two sure, she then went in to find Web and Tom.**

**She found them in the rec room crowded round the new table football game cheering on the two people playing, apparently it was Chelsea verses Liverpool and Liverpool were winning three two. Alice didn't really care much for football but she knew that the two boys did so she left them be and decided to tell them on the bus home.**

**Web saw Alice come into the rec room and then leave, he saw the look on her face so he decided to follow her. When he finally got through the crush of people so that he could get out of the door Alice had already disappeared, never mind he'd talk to her on the bus tonight.**

**Chelsea won the football match 10:8, after that some other people started to play Tom got bored and decided to leave, by now the crowd had thinned enough so that he didn't have to push his way out. After lunch Tom was at games playing football, Web had English then double biology and Alice had double art then maths. Web enjoyed some English lessons mainly the ones were they were allowed to read or watch a film but he found all the rest really boring, all the punctuation, summary's and article reading, fortunately because this was the last English lesson they had they were watching a film. Alice had just handed her homework in and was getting on with her present project which was a giant collage of faces all with different expressions, some with only half a face, some a quarter and some just the mouth of eyes. Her art teacher said it had been an interesting project and that if Alice made it good then it might be hanged up in the entrance hall, so Alice was trying really hard on every face to make it look perfect, never the same face twice, never the exact same expression and never a gap on the card, so far it was going really well and Alice had covered three Quarters of the card, she just hoped that she'd be able to finish it this lesson.**

**Tom was on the bus back to school, he hadn't been picked for the team someone had made fun of him so he had punched him, it had seemed like the right thing to do at the time but now he was on his way back to school to report back to the deputy head, not the way he had been expecting the day to go. It was while Tom was sulking that the gripganger jumped onto the bus Tom looked out of his window and there it was just looking at him. Tom actually liked the gripganger he liked all the pockets they had in their coat and that you never knew what was going to come out of them, this time he saw a green head pop out of one of the pockets followed by red shoulders then a blue body. Tom laughed a thruk this really was going to be interesting, but then he wondered why the gripganger was working with the thruk, the gripgangers normally liked to work by themselves oh well they were monsters who knew what they thought Thwack went the rock that Tom had just conjured up as it smashed into the gripganger and the thruk they both disappeared into a puff of ashes. He'd have to tell Alice and Web about this on the bus later.**

Chapter 4 An unexpected ally

**When all the children had got on the bus the bus left. Alice, Tom and Web were all discussing Alice's and Tom's monster experiences they all found it strange that different types of monsters were working together maybe it was just these types. Somehow Web didn't think so in his opinion the monsters had been getting better coordinated and generally more organized for a few months now but for some reason it was only the weaker monsters so far. Web just prayed to god that the stronger monsters like the werewolves and the hydra's didn't get involved.**

**Suddenly the bus came to an abrupt stop Web who had moved to the front could see why, there was traffic, cars blocking the road ahead for as far as the eye could see. The driver got up opened the door and went out that's when the sounds came, people screaming, horns blaring, ambulance sirens and yet over all this there was a strange braying noise like a mix between a horse and a cow. Web looked back down the bus towards Alice and Tom and he could see that they were thinking exactly what he was, Minotaur and more than one!**

**They jumped out of the bus and started running towards the center of the commotion. When they got there they stopped with their mouths open in astonishment, in front of them were five fully grown male minotaurs four of with were currently smashing up the neighbourhood and the fifth, which just happened to be the biggest was looking straight at them!**

**Now as monsters go minotaurs are probably one of the worst, they average around 6 and a half foot, are very strong, very intelligent and don't like being called names such as stinky ass which Tom had found out around two months ago when he had called one cow brain. On their own minotaurs have been know to tear down buildings with their bear hands, in groups they are best just left to whatever they are doing.**

**Alice immediately sent jets of fire straight at the first minotaur which had the effect of badly singing its fur pushing it back a couple of meters and also attracting the attention of the other four "nice going Alice" shouted Tom over the roaring fire "well what else was I going to do?"**

"**Fair enough" Tom conjured up a giant mallet and got ready to make a stand.**

**Web watched in amazement as Alice held three on the Minotaurs at bay with a wall of fire and Tom was using his giant hammer to pummel the other two, while Web was watching Tom tripped one of them up with the handle and then got ready to smash its head but Web saw what the others didn't the other minotaurs suddenly looked fearful and the one that was on the floor had a gold band round his neck. "STOP, stop fighting, Tom stop fighting" Tom and Alice both turned to look at him that was all the Minotaur needed to get away from the hammer the other four started to advance on the children, "stop" said a deep gruff voice and the biggest of the minotaurs stepped forward. Alice and Tom looked at the Minotaur in amazement even Web who had been expecting it was stunned. It was then that Zukes turned up running round the corner and coming to a stop when he saw the Minotaurs.**

"**I am Gresham leader of the White Pelt clan I extend my gratitude to you for saving my life young one and I also come to ask for you help in these dark times"**

**The four children just stood there in amazement they had been battling monsters for ten years now and had never encountered or expected anything like this.**

"**Well do you not speak like the rest of your race?"**

"**Yes we speak" said Web who was the first to pluck up the courage to talk "we just never knew that creatures like you could talk"**

"**Ah yes I suppose that is a fair reason for your silence"**

"**Hey wait a minute, how come out of all the monsters we have faced you lot, the strongest, toughest, meanest looking and hardest to kill are asking for our help?"**

"**You pose a good question young one but first is there anywhere we can go that we wont be seen, I am cautious that your, how do you say polcemen? May come with their guns"**

"**Well if you hadn't been so eager to destroy half the houses on this street then maybe you wouldn't have anything to worry about" said Tom**

"**You can come back to our house it's only round the corner" said Zukes**

"**Thank you this is much appreciated"said Gresham**

"**It should be" muttered Tom**

Chapter 5 The ruler of monsters

**As soon as they got in the house Zukes, with a wave of his hand closed all the curtain or blinds so no one could see in. the minotaurs went into the lounge and sat on the carpet, the children came in and sat on the couch and Gadzookes who was scared by the minotaurs went into retreat underneath the sofa.**

"**Well why do you want our help then" demanded Tom**

"**The monsters are being lead by someone who wants to take other both of the realms, our and yours by force, she has already started trying to get the monsters to work together and so far it is partially working, she obviously realizes that this is the only way to conquer both the realms by force in this realm and diplomatically in mine. Fortunately for us some of the stronger creatures are reluctant to join the army that she is amassing"**

"**so your saying that this person wants to make all the monsters work together to crush this realm and then she will clam herself as ruler of your realm" said Zukes**

"**Pretty much yes"**

"**Great but why do you need us" asked Tom**

"**Because we minotaurs don't have the numbers for when the war kicks off, we need all the help we can get, that is why we have come to you because if we don't all work together then we don't stand a chance, we will be wiped out along with all the other races that don't obey the She Lord"**

"**you keep saying her who is this woman"**

"**She is a vampire countess the most powerful vampire in the whole monster realm and believe me that's a big area. She calls herself the She lord because that's what she wants to become, the ruler of all monsters. It is for this reason that many of the powerful creatures including us minotaurs refuse to join her, we don't want to be ruled we want to be free to do whatever 2we want to do"**

"**What like destroying parts of our world?" (Tom)**

"**No offence kido but you're kind of doing that already"**

"**Wait how come the weaker creatures still join her" asked Alice**

"**Because she scares them if they don't join her then they die. She's found many a way of inflicting pain on creatures and if anything stands in her way, well lets just say it doesn't get in her way again."**

"**ok we'll help you but what do you want us to do" asked Zukes**

"**Find allies, when the time comes we will come and get you"**

**Gresham and Zukes went out of the lounge and into the kitchen closing the door behind them, Alice went out the patio door into the garden and Web went up to his room to see what was on television. Tom was left in the lounge with the other minotaurs**

"**So what do you guys do for fun then" asked Tom**

"**Umm crush goblins and practice sword fighting that kinda stuff"**

"**Right ok" said Tom not being put off "ever watch the Simpson's?"**

"**The what"**

"**I'll take that as a no then**

**When Zukes and Gresham came out of the kitchen Tom and the minotaurs were watching the Simpson's eating from a tub of popcorn that Tom had found in his room.**

**Have you ever heard a minotaur laugh? Probably not, well imagine thunder but rising and falling in pitch it was a bit like that. Tom and the minotaurs spun round, the popcorn disappearing at the same time to see Gresham laughing at them.**

"**it seems Zukes that your brother here has decided to take it upon himself to educate my finest warriors in your races entertainment" said Gresham**

"**yeh he does like to make people feel relaxed"**

"**anyway my warriors and I will be leaving now and Zukes take what I said into consideration it may well save you and your sibling's lives"**

"**Don't worry I've already started packing"**

**A thumping sound came from upstairs and two suitcases came whizzing down the stairs with Web surfing on one, when the suitcases got to the bottom they stopped abruptly sending Web head over heels into Zukes. Grisham left with a smile on his face.**

"**So were are we going then Zukes" asked Web rubbing his head**

"**We're going to a friend of mine from college"**

"**Is he rich" asked Tom**

"**No he's not but I think you might like his basement" said Zukes with a smile on his face.**

Chapter 6 A lot of weapons

**The bus dropped the children off on a road in the middle of nowhere opposite them was a two storey building with a red door and a very messy front lawn. If there had been any neighbors and they had happened to be watching the four children walk up the path then they would have seen a small blond haired boy with sparkling blue eyes look at the lawn and shake his head, as he shook his head all the weeds in the garden started to shrink and when they were around ankle height turned into many different types of flowers.**

**Alice looked at Tom with surprise**

"**I didn't know you were into gardening"**

"**Well it was a three hour journey and there were a few magazines on the seat so I thought I might as well read them." Replied Tom.**

"**Ok but don't get into a habit of it" said Alice**

**A boy a bit older than Zukes came rushing out of the front door shouting, he was about 6 foot with short blond hair like an army cut, he had grey misty eyes and a face that seemed to be saying been there done that now bring me something challenging. "Oi what the hell do you think your… oh Zukes its you, um yeh, come in,"**

**The boy lead the children into his lounge "please sit down I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone"**

"**That's okay we weren't expecting you to" said Zukes**

"**Okay tell me why you're here then" he said**

"**Woh hold up you haven't even told us who you are yet!" said Tom**

"**Ah yes well okay then, I'm Sam, college student by day bounty hunter by night, I've destroyed 465 monsters so far including 5 minotaurs and 3 hydras oh yeh and a werewolf, I've failed all my maths exams but passed all my languages any questions"**

**Tom, Web and Alice looked at Sam.**

"**Well I spose that answers my question then" said Tom**

"**Did you say 465" asked Alice**

"**Yes I did say 465" said Sam "and no Web I'm not proud of it, I kill them because otherwise they will kill me"**

"**How did you know I was going to say that?"**

"**Because Zukes has told me a lot about you three and I guessed that you would be the one to ask me if I felt bad about killing monsters"**

"**Oh right okay then"**

"**Anyway are you gonna tell me why your all here with suitcases or not"**

"**Yes I'll tell you" said Zukes standing up "you three go and play or explore or something"**

"**Zukes we're not little kids" said Tom sucking his thumb.**

"**Just don't go in the basement" said Sam.**

**What Sam didn't realize was the effect that those words have on kids its like saying don't take any of the cookies while I'm gone, so of course by the time your back the cookies will all be gone and the kids will be in their room hiding. Your might as well say kids help your self to the cookies their on the second shelf next to the oven. Anyway Tom immediately set off for the basement followed by Web and Alice. When they finally found it and opened the door they just stood there. In front of them was rack upon rack or weaponry which included things like swords, pistols, rocket launchers, machine guns and well I could go on forever, basically imagine have you ever seen the matrix? well if you have then you might remember the scene in the first movie where Neo is in a white room with Trinity and then suddenly racks of guns appear as far as the eye can see, well it was like that except they weren't in white room, they were in a basement and the racks didn't go as far as the eye could see, they went round all four walls with a table in the middle. Web stepped into the room and went straight to the rack next to him he picked up a long silver samurai sword and just looked at in amazement. Tom walked straight across the room and picked up an assault rifle underneath it there was a white label which said Type: ****M16A4 rifle**

**Use: goblins, saber tooth's, gripgangers and yeti's**

**Loaded: normal bullets**

"**Awesome" said Tom before lifting the weapon and looking down the sights.**

**Alice walked down the racks looking at the various weapons she stopped at a flamethrower and then carried on shaking her head finally she stopped at a rack of swords. These were the most beautiful swords she had ever seen! Probably Elven made they had a slight curve at the end and were made of silver with a straight leather handle a small hand guard and then a little barb jutting out of the blade, it looked beautiful and deadly at the same time. (Here's what it looks like)**

**Before Alice could reach out and pick up the blades she heard someone at the door, she grabbed Tom as he was the closest and dragged him under the stairs putting her finger to his lips, she then looked through the stairs trying to find Web. Web who had heard the noise around the same time as Tom threw himself across the floor and under the stairs to join the others.**

**Sam opened the door and walked down the stairs, he looked around the room to check nothing was missing, his eyes stopped at a rack of assault rifles one of the rifles was missing, Sam went over to the table in the middle of the room and started checking the drawers, while he was bending over he saw a glint of light reflect off of something next the stairs. He went over and picked up the rifle and put it back in its case then as he turned around "Alice, Tom, Web how about you come out now"**

**The three kids crawled out from under the stairs Tom rubbing his knee where Web had collided with it.**

"**How did you know we were there" asked Alice**

"**Yeh I put up a sense field so there was no way you could see or hear us" said Web**

"**yes I thought that that was an interesting touch" said Sam " but I'm afraid that's kinda what gave you away you see, I can tell if there are force fields along with a few other things near by"**

"**What few other things?" asked Web**

"**Hey wait a minute, Web did you say you put up a sense field?" said Alice**

"**Yeh I did, Sam what other things"**

"**Hay you can't just ignore me like that Web I'm your sister! How long have you been able to make fields?"**

"**I've been able to do it since you guys found your powers"**

"**Well why didn't you tell us and don't say because you didn't ask"**

"**I haven't told you because I didn't think it was important yet"**

"**Not important! You could have stopped loads of things from happening like Tom breaking his leg when a thruk charged into him, Zukes having to go into casualty because a hydra's spear got him through the chest and me getting kicked out of school because I set fire to the head teachers wig which was actually a giful!"**

"**I'm sorry"**

"**Well sometimes sorry doesn't cut it" said Alice walking out of the room slamming the door behind her**

"**you know" said Tom " I don't think she's gonna be in a good mood for a few days I recommend staying away from anything flammable for awhile"**

"**Great thanks Tom" said Web.**

**Web walked around the room for abit looking at the various weapons and then left to try and find out which room was his.**

Chapter 7 powers and lessons

**For three days Web stayed in his room only coming out for meal times and then not talking to anyone on the second day when Sam went up stairs he noticed that Web had put up a lot of protection field on the inside of his room, Sam had to admit the kid was good at making fields.**

**On the third day Web came out and apologized to Alice Zukes and Tom for keeping them in the dark about his powers. He then showed them what he had been doing the past three days which was trying to find out as much information about the She Lord as possible. His method of finding this information had been to capture a goblin that had been going past and probe its mind until it gave him the information he was looking for, he then thanked the goblin for its cooperation and severed a few of the more important links in the brain, instant death quick and painless. The information that he had got was that the She Lord had managed to get the Falc's, Hydras and Grell's on her side. The Falc's are basically a bigger and nastier version of a crow, the Grell's are demon dogs and the Hydras are big lizard things with jaws that are fully capable of ripping a human head off. The She Lord had also tried to get the centaurs and werewolves on her side but the centaurs had rejected her offer and were now hiding in one of the deserted sections of the monster realm, while the werewolves were still making up their mind. These were the solid facts but there were also rumors that the She Lord had recruited trolls and hags as well as a few giants.**

**This was a mixture of good and bad news for the group as it meant they had a potential ally but it also meant that the She Lord had quite a few more races in her army.**

**For the next few days everyone was running around getting things they thought they might need if they were going into the monster realm. Surprisingly Alice was the first packed with a torch, her Ipod incase things got boring and one spare change of clothes. After the others saw how much she had packed they followed suit everyone that is apart from Sam who had been down in the basement for two days straight when Alice went down she saw him standing in the middle of the room with a samurai sword in each hand the table had been moved to one side of the room providing Sam with room to practice. As Alice watched some stuffed dummy's popped up from the floor and then in a blink of an eye Sam was moving to the first one and slicing then to second one when he reached the second one the first ones arms and head fell off this carried on for five dummy's with five more left Sam settled into a fighting stance and then the dummy's seemed to come alive charging at Sam with silver daggers in their hands, Sam just stood there until the last second when he leapt aside slashing the first one across the stomach and then spinning around and chopping its head of he then charged the other four and proceeded to kill them one by one when Sam had finished he didn't have a scratch on him! He then went over to the table, on the table were loads of leather straps Sam placed the two swords into slots in the leather, he then picked up the leather bundle and slung it over his back so that the two handle's were sticking out over his shoulders he then picked up two pistols and put them in holsters with two spare ammo clips. Alice then walked down the steps into the basement.**

"**Can you teach me to fight like that?"**

**Sam spun round drawing one of the pistol "oh its you what are you doing down here"**

"**Looking for you, can you teach me then?"**

"**What? Oh well I spose so but don't expect to master it over night"**

"**That's okay I don't mind how long it takes"**

"**Okay then but I'll have to find a sword for you"**

"**Could I use those two" asked Alice pointing at the swords she had noticed earlier**

"**I don't know Alice those swords were given to me by the Elf king and queen two years ago they mean a lot to me"**

"**You mean you've been to the elf kingdom"**

"**Yes I was there for a year"**

"**What was it like?"**

"**How about I tell you in our next lesson"**

"**So you will teach me"**

"**Yeh starting tomorrow an hour and a half each day"**

"**Thanks Sam"**

"**That's okay just don't tell Tom otherwise he'll be wanting a go on the machinegun"**

"**Okay" said Alice**

**Alice had been having lessons with Sam for three weeks now during which she had progressed to the forth grade. Sam said that she was probably one of the most talented human's he had ever seen wield the sword. As Alice went through all this in her mind Web was in his room lying unconscious on the floor while a little blue creature about waist height repeatedly rammed the door.**

"**Web, Web are you alright in there" Alice shouted from the other side of the door. The blue creature looked at the door and cocked his head then lowered it and charged the door at the same time Alice opened the door, the creature ran straight through the open doorway across the hall and straight into the wall! He looked up and shook his head then promptly jumped through the window. Alice looked out the window and saw the creature running away across the fields.**

**Web opened his eyes to see Alice leaning over him "Zukes you'd better get up here" she shouted, on the floor in front of her was a platypus**

"**Um were did that come from" asked Zukes as he entered the room**

"**I don't know, I opened the door and this little blue creature came running out, I walked in and it was on the floor"**

**Web rolled over onto his front suddenly realizing that he was really small and that his vision was very blurry. He could just make out Zukes and Alice watching him. He, well he wasn't sure what he did now, did he run did he waddle anyway whatever is was it got him over to Zukes who he head butted and then went out the door hoping his plan would work, he could hear Zukes and Alice talking behind him.**

"**I think he wants us to follow him" said Zukes**

"**Okay then lets follow him" replied Alice**

**Web climbed down half the stairs and then fell down the rest, he was just about getting used to this creature sure it was a bit clumsy but he'd just fallen down ten stairs all bigger than him and he hadn't felt a thing! Web picked himself up and went into the lounge he then climbed up onto a chair and turned around to face Zukes and Alice. Here came the tricky bit communication, he'd read a book once about these kids who could shape shift and they communicated by thought, maybe he could talk to the others through his thoughts it was worth a try at any rate.**

"**Zukes, Alice can you hear me?"**

"**Web is that you were are you?" said Zukes looking around**

"**Right in front of you" said web glad that his idea had worked.**

**Zukes and Alice both looked at the platypus Web**

"**You mean you're a platypus" said Alice**

"**No I'm me but I can change into a platypus" and hopefully back added web to himself**

"**Sooo you're a shape shifter then"**

"**I spose so yeh" said web the excitement showing in his voice**

"**Change back now web" said Zukes**

"**Okay give me a sec" said web" it's not like I've done this before" suddenly the platypus bill shrank into its head then the tail was sucked into the body. Slowly but surly Web was turning back into Web. At that moment tom came into the room, in the chair he saw a waist height creature with pink fur webbed hands no nose and a slit for a mouth.**

"**What is that" shouted Tom, Web looked up and then fully changed back in about two seconds**

"**Hi Tom" he said**

"**What, what, what were you"**

"**Well I was a platypus but when you came in I was half way through transforming back"**

"**Since when could you shape shift" said Tom**

"**Since about ten minutes ago"**

"**Oh great" said Tom and promptly sat on Web**

"**Oi get off me you idiot" said Web**

"**No not until you tell me how you changed your powers"**

"**I don't know it just happened"**

"**Come on what do you take me for?"**

"**Well now you mention it…"**

"**Tom get off your brother he's telling the truth" said Zukes**

"**But he can't be" said Tom in a whining voice "it just doesn't happen, if it does then why hasn't it happened to me?"**

"**I don't know Tom but I suppose we will find out in time, whether we like it or not"**

"**Well I defiantly like it" said Web**

Chapter 8 a new addition to the party

**The days went by and nothing much happened, Alice continued her lessons with Sam and progressed onto the fifth level. Web found out he could transform into some other animals. When I say found out I mean turned into suddenly. He couldn't control the first time he turned into an animal after he had been it once he could turn into it whenever he wanted. First he turned into a mole which he had fun with digging up the garden much to Sam's displeasure. He then turned into a spider monkey which Alice thought was cute and Tom thought was weird because it looked nothing like a spider. Over around two weeks Web had turned into a mole, a spider monkey, a bald eagle and a platypus. Zukes had watched Web's transformations with interest, Web now had three creatures which were good for escaping the mole, digging the eagle, flying and the monkey climbing but he still had no creatures that were good for fighting. Zukes thoughts were interrupted by Sam coming into the room "hey Zukes Alice is getting on brilliantly I'm thinking of putting her up against some more powerful monsters soon if that's okay with you"**

"**Yeh that's fine just nothing too powerful"**

"**Don't worry she'll be fine"**

**Tom had watched all of Web's transformations with earnest his favorite despite what the others said was defiantly the spider monkey mainly because it was so funny and cute. He had also enjoyed watching Web fly as the eagle.**

**Sam walked down the hall and opened the door and standing in front of him casting a shadow down the hall was Grisham!**

"**Its time" he said.**

**It was five o'clock in the morning and the five humans and the Minotaur had been traveling none stop now since around seven o'clock last night "can we please stop now" said Tom**

"**Yes we can" said Gresham sitting down on the ground and grabbing out at a branch next to him to stop himself falling over. They had been traveling through the wood for five hours now with Web flying ahead and then coming back and telling them which way they had to go now. The directions from Gresham were vague heading for a eight foot tall stone pillar in a clearing, okay so this was very vague but anyway Zukes and Alice had got out a map and looked for all the forest or woods that were near them then Web flew off to find out if it had a clearing or not, it did, so now Web was flying back and forth keeping them on track.**

**Sam took a small yellow bag out of his rucksack and threw it on the ground where it grew into four yellow tents one for Gresham, one for Alice, one for Sam and Zukes and one for Web and Tom. "Talk about inconspicuous" muttered Gresham**

"**It was the only colour I had so it'll have to make do" said Sam**

"**Oh stop bickering you two and get some sleep god knows we're gonna need it" said Alice who had already got into her tent.**

**I spose that I might as well explain what is in Sam's rucksack as I probably wont get a chance later. First off the multicolored bags, these turned into a variety of things yellow = tents. Green = fire. Okay so not much of a variety but still. Also he had six little brown furry things these were a very basic form of messaging you tie a written letter to the underbelly of the creature and then tell it who you want it to go to. Anyway back to the story.**

**For the past week now Shade had been having weird dreams these had caused him to go back to the place where he had sworn he wouldn't go ever again, the realm portal's the dreams had also included humans, now as a rule Shade tried to stay away from humans but the humans in his dream well he kind of sensed that they were different and that they were heading his way. So he set out looking for them.**

**Web woke up, he could of sworn he heard giggling in the distance "Alice is that you" he said…no answer he changed to eagle and flew to the top of a tall tree. Looking down he saw a creature that looked vaguely human shaped, he decided to take a risk and fly down in front of the creature. It had fur all over it's face, green narrow eyes and sharp teeth but it didn't look fierce it looked puzzled and curious, Web shifted to human the creature backed away and then seemed to smile**

"**Human I found human" it yelled**

**Shade watched all this from a distance he saw the fang yell and knew what would happen next he could already hear the rest of the hunting pack approaching he knew he had to help this eagle boy mainly because he was one of the humans in his dream and secondly because he really didn't like fangs. As far as he could tell there was only one thing he could do.**

**Web saw what he had just got himself into e.g. seven creatures with evil grins on their face licking their lips at him. A black blur flashed past Web and charged into the lead creature, Web saw that the thing attacking the creature was also humanish though more so than the other creatures it had long black hair, and piercing green eyes it also had some evil looking blades hidden up its sleeves and a bow and quiver slung over its back**

**The fang looked at Shade "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be dead!" said the fang the worry showing in his voice**

"**What makes you think I'm gonna tell you" said Shade cutting the fangs throat he then stood up using the dead fang as a shield, as he rose he threw six silver daggers at the remaining fangs all the daggers hit their respective fangs straight in the forehead with uncanny accuracy.**

**Web watched with awe" who are you" he asked**

"**My name is Shade and I am a friend" replied Shade**

"**umm okay then I spose I'd better introduce you to the others" the two walked back into the camp to be greeted by a stony face Alice she went straight up to Web and slapped him across the face "what were you thinking Web, you would have been killed if it hadn't been for umm I'm sorry I don't know your name" she said turning to Shade**

"**Alice this is Shade, Shade this is my sister Alice" said Web rubbing his cheek were Alice had slapped him**

"**Glad to meet you Alice" said Shade**

"**I'm glad you came when you did Shade otherwise my little brother here would be shesh kebab"**

"**Shesh kebab?"**

"**Dead"**

"**Oh I get it yes he most certainty would have been" Said Shade**

**Tom came crawling out of his tent "Geez next time can we book a hotel or at least." Tom stopped mid sentence when he saw Shade he walked over to Shade "Hi I'm Tom pleased to meet you" he said holding out his hand**

**Shade looked up and took Tom's hand uncertainly**

"**I'm Shade" he said. Zukes and Sam came out of their tents both noticed Shade straight away and introduced themselves. Tom looked around "is Gresham still not up yet" he exclaimed" "and where's Web gone?" a loud growl came from Gresham's tent and an eagle flew out closely followed by Gresham "if you try and do that again I swear I'll rip that bloody beak of yours off!" Gresham turned round and saw everyone looking at him, he didn't pay attention to any of the others he walked straight up to Shade and punched him in the face, Shade was sent flying back into a tree "well I suppose I deserved that" he said getting up**

"**Why did you leave?" demanded Gresham**

"**I had no choice I was being hunted by a pack of hydras and the She Lord herself the only place I could hide was in the human realm"**

"**So why are you back then?"**

"**Because no stupid bloodsucker is going to keep me from my home any more"**

"**Guys if we could skip the reunion and get going" said Web**

"**Why" asked Tom**

"**Because there is a unit of goblins coming our way"**

"**So" said Alice "we could easily beat them"**

"**There are thirty of them mounted on grells"**

"**Okay that's a good reason to leave"**

**Everyone rushed into their tents grabbed their things and then started to run in the vague direction of the portal.**

**As they burst into the clearing an arrow flew past Tom's ear and looking back he saw the goblins just about to enter the clearing were they would have a clear shot.**

"**Their right behind us!" he shouted, fortunately at that moment they all went through the portal.**

**One minute Alice was looking at a piece of shimmering sky the next she was in a dark twisting tunnel which felt like she was being pulled in every direction possible then she was out into the open again but this time she was in a different place completely she was in the monster realm.**

Chapter 9 the monster realm

**Web ran straight into Sam's back and then saw why everyone had stopped**

"**Welcome to the monster realm" said Gresham**

**They were standing on a cliff quite high up a mountain that when they looked behind them could see was part of a HUGE chain of mountains that seemed to stretch all the way from the eastern sea to the west deserts.**

**In front of them they could see a huge seemingly never ending plain with oasis, a few villages, quite a lot of roads joining them all together and a river running haphazardly through the middle of the plain. To their left was a forest it was made of mainly pine and fur trees. On their right just on the horizon was a shimmering city and if the group had had a telescope they could have seen that in the middle of that city was a black palace and if they had zoomed in with that telescope then they would have seen the She Lord sitting on her throne with a giant on either side of her and in front of her a dead centaur messenger, you could tell he was a messenger because he didn't have a bow and arrow but a short knife.**

"**That city on the horizon is the black city were the She lord rules from" said Gresham "it's also were she trains and recruits her army"**

"**On the left of her palace is the lab it has all the most advanced things from your world and ours in it" said Shade**

**Web lead the way down the cliff until he got bored climbing and changed to eagle. He flew down to the forest and perched on a low branch of one of the huge pine trees that made up the forest as he had got so far ahead of the others he figured that he probably had enough time for a small nap.**

**When Web opened his eyes it was to find a human face about an inch away from his face so instinctively he jumped backwards unfortunately that was out of the tree. Looking back on it Web wasn't sure if it was the shock or the adrenalin from falling from a tree that made him do what he did next all he knew was that when he hit the floor he was a fully grown male Siberian tiger! The centaur ran away through the forest but the tiger kept up with it easily. Unfortunately Web had to stop when he fell into a pit dug into the ground. The centaur ran off into the forest but returned ten minutes later with more centaurs all with bows drawn and pointing straight at Web!**

"**Now look here"said Web "Why can't we come to some sort of peaceful agreement which doesn't involve me getting shot!" the centaurs backed off a bit the one who seemed to be the leader stepped forward "how do you speak to us beast? Are you one of the She Lords spies?"**

"**No! Look" said Web changing back to human "see I'm a human actually I came here to ask if we could be allies in the coming war"**

"**Hmm that sounds alright I'm Chentar the chief of the centaurs you say we but you are on your own were are the others of your party and do they change like you do"**

"**the others have probably only just entered the forest" Web said but I can take you to them if you want and no they can't change like I do though some of them can do other things"**

**And so Web led the party of centaurs through the forest to where he thought the others were camped.**

**When Web entered the camp with the centaurs Zukes was ran up to him straight away and started fussing over him checking if he was okay. "Zukes I'm fine no really I am" said Web "any way I brought a friend this is Chentar the chief of the centaurs"**

"**You seem to have a knack of bringing new people to our camp" said Zukes**

**The centaurs were introduced to everyone in the camp it seemed most of them already new Gresham. When Gresham saw the chiefs son he laughed "ah little Jacob, I remember when you were a little foal and could hardly walk now you are a young man with your own bow and sword" Jacob bowed low "it is a pleasure to see you again Gresham"**

"**Come on now Gresham greetings can wait first we must have a council of war" said Chentar**

**And so everyone sat down in a circle round a fire and started discussing the up coming war**

"**Gresham I take it that the Minotaurs are gathering yes?" said Chentar**

"**Yes they should all be at the golden hill in two days time from now"**

"**Good I have sent messengers to the elves and hopefully they should be here in around a week's time as will be all of my race but I'm not sure if the She Lord will allow us that much time"**

"**Then we must do all this as quickly as possible we may not be able to wait for the elves"**

"**Um guys I can turn into a tiger now" said Web**

**Tom looked at him "no fair I've only just learnt how to make things follow people" for the next few minutes Web turned into all of the different animals that he knew how mainly to show the centaurs which animals they shouldn't shoot, but also because everyone else wanted to see the tiger.**

**After awhile it was decided that the best thing for the group to do was head for the golden hill and when they arrived to wait for all the Minotaurs and centaurs to arrive. Then march across the plain where hopefully the elves would meet up with them and then maybe then they would stand a chance against the She lord's army.**

Chapter 10 the golden hill

**While the group was traveling they were joined by a dozen more centaurs and a Minotaur who had just escaped from the black city the group spent awhile feeding and tending to his wounds. The minotaur was able to tell them a lot about what was happening inside the black city, things like the army was forcing all the men over sixteen to join and that they were confiscating all the horses they could.**

**When the group got to the golden hill it was to see countless numbers of Minotaurs and centaurs as well as a few forest creatures all camped around the hill. Also surprisingly there were quite a few human soldiers, when Alice asked Gresham why this was she was told it was because she was not the only one to know of the monster realm and the trouble about to happen. The dozen centaurs went of to find their friends and the Minotaur after bowing to Gresham left to look for his tribe. As the group made their way through the camp there was a lot of bowing from the creatures to their respective leaders, handshaking between friends and a lot of creatures inviting the humans round to their house's for tea.**

"**You know after this war I reckon we could just live off of invitations for a year" said Sam**

"**I don't think that I want to be eating all those fruit and berries that the centaurs eat though" said Shade**

"**yeh it's all a little to vegetarian for me" said Gresham"give me a big slab of cow meat any day"**

**When the group got to the top of the hill they saw a group of five tents around a fire. Out of one of the tents came a old man with shoulder length grey hair but no beard when he saw the party approaching he ran back into the tent. A few seconds later he walked out again carrying a scroll, behind him stepped a beautiful young woman with long red hair and hazel eyes, she was wearing ornate dark green armor and around her belt was hung a deadly red sword. (Here is what she looks like)**

**Web thought she looked a bit like the warrior princess on television, Tom thought she looked like a goddess of war, Zukes thought she looked beautiful, Gresham wasn't really bothered, Alice wondered if she was as good at fighting as she looked and Shade glanced at the pointy ears sticking up out of the red hair then at the red sword she held and nodded with grim satisfaction.**

**The young man stepped forward and opened up the scroll that he was carrying "The king and queen of the elves extend their dearest apologies to you, the alliance of creatures and humans alike, that they are not able to join you in this, what will surly be glorious battle. They are at this moment getting ready their army that will be able to reinforce you in two months time. It will conta….."**

"**Okay thank you" interrupted the woman "I think we can gather that we will be without the help of my mother and father. You can go back and tell them thanks but no thanks"**

"**Yes mam" said the man bowing low and running back into his tent.**

**The woman stepped forward "hi I'm Alana princess of the seven forests and unwilling heir to the elf throne. Zukes, Tom and Web just stared, so Alice stepped forward "hi I'm Alice and these three idiots are my brothers" at this the boys brought themselves back to earth or wherever it was they were and introduced themselves, Alana smiled "I have heard a lot about you four, you have created quite a stir in the monster realm, the She lord really wants to kill you"**

"**Oh great" muttered Tom "tell her to get in line"**

**Now Gresham stepped forward and said in his gruff voice "it is a pleasure to meet you Alana I am Gresham leader of the white pelt clan and king of the Minotaurs"**

"**it is a pleasure to meet you too Gresham and may I suggest that you move your warriors away from the alcohol stores as we are already missing a few cases of elven wine" Gresham laughed "it shall be taken care of immediately"**

**Now Shade stepped forward an awkward smile on his face as if he was pleased but also worried at the same time.**

"**It's good to see you again Alana" he said "I see you finally won the grand tournament then"**

**Alana stared at him and put her hand on her sword hilt "how did you" suddenly she put her hand to her mouth and gasped "Shade is that you? We thought you were dead!"**

**Maybe its time I described Shade properly he is probably around six foot tall and has shoulder length jet black hair. He wears all black so that at night all you can see of him is his eyes. He isn't really muscley but you can tell he is strong he is also very fast and agile. At night he can see as well as you or I can during the day probably better. He has ears that jut out from his hair, they are pointy but a lot shorter than most elves. The thing that you would notice about him the most was the feeling that seemed to radiate from him when he was angry, it was like all the worst feelings put together; hate, anger, jealousy, sorrow. But above all this Shade was smart, cunning and honest, he knew that he wasn't normal, he knew what had been done to him, he knew what he was for but that didn't mean he had to do it.**

**Shade nodded "it's a long story and I don't want to go into it just yet"**

**Alana nodded "sure maybe later"**

**Alana lead the group into her tent were they sat down on cushions**

"**Now that you're here the preparations can really get under way" she said**

"**I gather from what I've seen that all the centaurs and Minotaurs are gathering here and that groups of creatures from across the Great Plains are coming in to help as well."**

"**Yes that is right" said Chentar "the centaurs have sent messengers off to every corner of the plains to tell of what is coming, we have if you will shown our cards"**

"**Ai that we have" said Gresham "the She Lord now knows that we are going to fight her, doubtless she already knew that but now we have confirmed it"**

"**So what do we do about it" said Alice "She has every advantage she can possibly get"**

"**Well the only thing to do is fight really. We get as close to the city as we can and then we fight" said Zukes**

"**I have an idea" said Shade "there is a hidden tunnel that leads to the caverns below the great city we could take the army down there and the come up in the middle of the city, hopefully the She Lord will not be expecting that"**

**The idea was agreed with instantly and a few details added. Gresham and Chanter went to tell the plan to their soldiers and the humans were shown the camp first they were taken to the armory were they were to pick their weapons for the battle, Sam and Alice already had theirs and Web was hoping for a new morph but at the moment his tiger one was great. Still you never knew what might come in handy. Web picked up a silver dagger and a small shield, Tom picked up a crossbow and a quiver full of bolts for it, he also found a long staff made out of bronze on the top of it there was an ornate golden sphere which he could strap on his back so he picked that up as well, Zukes picked up a short dwarven sword and a round bronze shield with a metal bump in the middle. Next they went into the armour room in which they spent a long time choosing which armour they wanted and seeing if it fitted them finally they choose, Tom had a skull cap like helmet with a chain mail top and leg guards, Web chose not to have a helmet but to have body armour with a high neck guard and some leather boots. Zukes picked a helmet with a spike on the top, a chain mail top and some leather leggings. He also saw some suits of knight armour and pointed them out to Tom who laughed and asked the elf who was showing them around if they could take all of them. The elf looked at him and then shrugged and called a few Minotaurs that were standing in the corner to carry the armour to the boy's tent. After the armoury the group were shown to their sleeping quarters. Meanwhile Alana and Shade had stayed in Alana's tent and had been telling each other what they had been up to since they last saw each other.**

Chapter 11 the first battle

**When everyone meet up again in the morning Shade told the others abit about himself. He had been part of a peace envoy to the trolls in the northern parts of the forests when the envoy had been ambushed by a group of fangs wearing red and black armour. Taken by surprise the elves had been massacred. Shade had managed to fight his way out of the trap and started running for the city, unfortunately the fangs had been prepared for any survivors and had set up a post on the road to catch any survivors, Shade had been caught and thrown into a cart that was waiting off the side of the track. The cart had taken Shade to the black city there he had been sold as a slave and had worked there for a year before he had been taken to the palace and sold to the She lord. As Shade was an elf the She lord had taken him to the dungeons and left him there to rot unfortunately for him she obviously had not forgotten him as one of her chief scientists came and dragged him out of his cell.**

**For the next few months Shade couldn't remember much but what he did he wished he didn't. He remembered his ears being cut and waking up once in the middle of some sort of surgery, his stomach had been ripped open and inside there seemed to be bits of metal. When he finally came around properly his ears had gained their point again but were much shorter and all his skin was pitch black, he was much stronger than before and when he was allowed out into the courtyard he discovered he was a lot faster and more agile. One night in his cell he had had a strange dream in which a blue creature which an exceptionally flat head had appeared and unlocked the door to his cell, when he woke up his cell door was open and the little blue creature was standing next to it smiling. He had told Shade to run and that he had less than ten minutes before the guards came. Shade took the advice and legged it, he finished up outside the gates of the city and from there he crossed the plains and the great mountains into the rugged land beyond, there he met the minotaurs and lived for a few years before the She lord found him. And he ran away to the human realm**

**The kids were shocked sitting in front of them was one of the She lord's experiments! Unfortunately they didn't have time to contemplate this as a centaur scout came running into their camp "Sir. Sir" he shouted "the She lord has sent a small war party this way"**

"**Well what are you waiting for then boy" said Gresham "go and alert the commanders" Everyone stood up and ran off to their tents all expect Alice and Shade "Shade" Alice said**

"**Yes?"**

"**Will you be okay when we get to the city?"**

**Shade nodded "don't worry about me I'll be fine now go and get your armour its time to make prove your self in battle" Alice nodded and hurried off. Shade watched her run, he smiled to himself now he would get his revenge.**

**Gresham, Chentar, Alana and Tom stood on the hill watching the approaching army "it's not as big as I thought it would be" said Tom**

"**Don't be fooled this is not the main army this is just a probe sent to test us" said Chentar. Tom nodded "then lets show them what we're made of" he ran down the hill with Alana behind him to were Alice, Sam and the elf swordsmen were standing, he passed a piece of paper to his sister "look after yourself sis" Alice looked at the paper and smiled "thanks bro you to" Tom ran on until he got to Web and the centaurs that were acting as cavalry "hay bro how you doing" said Web**

"**fine thanks" said Tom "just came to give you this, its from Gresham" out of his bag he lifted a helmet that looked like it would fit a horse "what is it?" asked Web "go tiger" said Tom so Web did, when he was fully tiger Tom slipped the helmet onto Web's head, it covered the top and sides of his head and left him able to turn his head easily "thanks" said Web "no problem" replied Tom "now I've got to get to my post, see yah" Tom ran off back to the top of the hill Zukes was waiting for him at the top. Gresham had gone to join his warriors and Chentar had gone to join the archers. The War band was still advancing at a phenomenal rate "well Tom it looks like it's up to us to slow this lot down" said Zukes looking over the plains "I'm with you on that on brother" said Tom "lets do it" Zukes lifted his hands up and rocks and boulders lifted up from the ground in front of the war band Tom fixed his eyes on the rocks and suddenly they were changing shape and coming to life in a minute there were five big rock monsters standing in the way of the war band. Tom could see the War band slow down apprehensively he smiled, the rock monsters charged forward towards the War band and started stomping on them suddenly one by one they fell down crushing quite a few monsters underneath them. Tom shrugged "oh well so much for plan A"**

**As Tom watched the army started to march forward the infantry in the middle, the cavalry on the flanks and the archers behind the war band also started to move forwards both groups increasing speed with the cavalry charging ahead to attack the sides of the enemy group then the two sides met. Web had changed to tiger as soon as the cavalry had increased their speed they had hit the flanks of the enemy with all the force of a sledgehammer now Web was fighting two Fangs at the same time, as one rushed him he leaped over its head spun round and with one slash of his claws ripped it open from head to toe. Normally Web would be horrified at this kind of violence but war makes men and Web had figured that doing this to someone was better than them doing it to you.**

**Alice had just finished off a group of goblins and was looking forward to using the spell that Tom had given her when a Hag with blood dripping from its fangs and a cruel looking blade held in its remaining hand ran at her, the speed of the attack pushed Alice onto the floor and had it not been for a stray arrow from one of the centaurs it would have killed her.**

**Shade was fighting the commander of the war band and was watching Alice fighting but because he wasn't paying attention to his fight he was rewarded with a long deep cut along his arm. Now he was getting annoyed with this guy he threw his sword up in the air and smiled at the commander then he jumped into the air caught his sword and plunged in into the head of the commander. Not the cleanest kill but a kill all the same now he could carry on with his assignment which was to take out the leaders of the war party unfortunately he figured that he'd just done that. During the fight he had seen Web go past twice once he was fighting with a Fang the second time he was clinging onto the bag of an extraordinarily big troll, he'd also seen Gresham go charging into a decent sized unit of human infantry wielding his double sided axe like a madman. He shrugged pulling his sword out of a Fangs stomach and then chopping of a few goblin heads, as long as they won he really didn't care how it was done.**

**From Toms vantage point on top of the hill he could see the way the battle was going and it was obvious that they were going to win. The cavalry had destroyed the flanks and the infantry were pressing forward with a steady determination. He watched the centaur archers move around behind the war band and shoot. That was probably the best thing about having half horse half human archers they could quickly reposition themselves to maximize their destructive power. Tom smiled well it looked like this battle was won.**

**With an almighty cheer the allied army celebrated their victory though they all knew that the real battle was still to come.**

Chapter 13 the calm before the storm

**Gresham walked through the camp, numerous field hospitals had sprung up and walking past them Gresham saw some horrific injuries. There was a Minotaur who had had his left eye eaten out by a hag, and a centaur who had had his front two legs cut off. Ahead of him he saw Web bounding over to him still in tiger form, well I suppose bounding isn't the right word more like limping. As web got to him he shifted back into human and his leg was healed, Gresham looked at him "well it looks like you had a good fight then" web grinned "it was alright but I don't think we could have lasted a lot longer" Gresham nodded he had been thinking the same thing while he had been fighting "yes your probably right lets go and see Alana she's probably got something for us to do"**

**As Web and Gresham trudged towards the top of the hill they were joined by Tom and Alice who were both in a heated discussion about something that had happened during the battle "im telling you it didn't work"**

"**Did you even use it properly"**

"**Yes or at least I think I did"**

"**Oh great well next time I give you a spell maybe I should write instructions on how to say it as well!" The conversation drew to a halt when they reached the tent and the conversation turned to more pressing subjects such as who would be positioned were for the attack.**

**One by one everyone filed out of the tent with grim expressions on their faces. Alice walked over to the unit that she had been drafted into, she was glad to see that only one of the warriors had been injured and none killed this meant that they would have pretty much full strength in the battle. Sam wandered over to the same unit as Alice and began checking his armour and swords if there was just one flaw in his armour that could lead to his death, if there was a flaw in his blade then that could lead to his death also. He sighed so many things that could go wrong and so little time to try to prevent them, he shrugged his shoulders and carried on with the job at hand he would do what he could to preserve his life and those of his friends the others could worry about themselves. Tom stood on top of the hill that he had stood upon earlier he saw the entrance to the tunnel over to the west, Shade was right unless you knew it was there you would never see it, he smiled they would come right out under the She lords feet like then he stopped what would they come out like? A worm? No to ugly and slow, a mole then nope to blind. His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden commotion behind him fearing attack he drew his dagger and rushed down the hill only to find a large grey rhino running around he laughed. Really his brother did chose the most inconvenient times to discover a new animal. **

**Web was having a most uncomfortable time he hadn't even been thinking about shifting but he had, and it was bloody annoying I mean come on a rhino? What flipping use is a rhino? All it can do is run around and shove stuff out of the way then he felt a prick in his side he turned and realised that a centaur had shot him trying to slow him down obediently he stopped then when the centaur pulled the arrow out he morphed back to human. He rubbed his side were the arrow had hit him it seemed that there was a use for the rhino after all it could charge through ranks of men not feeling any pain and leaving a hole in the lines for the Alliance to pour through he grinned maybe the rhino wasn't so useless after all.**

**Shade watched the commotion with interest then he turned and walked off to his tent were he sat and cleaned his weapons and checked over them checking for dents. When he was satisfied that they were good he got up and made ready for the coming battle.**

Chapter 14 the tunnel fights

**As soon as the black of night was strong enough that the army could be hidden they set off for the entrance to the tunnel, with Shade guiding them they found it within ten minutes and started straight in not hesitating for one second. As soon as they walked into a larger tunnel Alana called everyone into their places and they started advancing in formation, those at the front carrying Flame torches. Shade walked along alert and ready for action from one of the smaller tunnels on his right he thought he heard the pattering of feet but when he stopped and listened again he could not hear it and so dismissed it though a few minutes later he heard it again, this time he told Alana who called a halt and he listened again but still he could not hear it and so they proceeded deeper into the tunnels. Everyone was on edge and so they should be they were now underneath the black city and soon they would be bursting forth into the city to attack the She lord right on her front doorstep. Then a gurgling sound came from in front of them peering into the darkness the soldiers could see nothing but Shade who had better eyesight than them saw and shouted "string your bows and aim high for it seems we have company" everyone looked at up and were they could not see before they could now hundreds of Falcs were flying towards them with their cruel hooked beaks and sharp talons glinting in the torch light. The sound of two hundred bows being stung filled the tunnel and then when the Falcs were in range two hundred arrows flew over the heads of the army and thudded into the advancing Falcs. Again and again this was repeated until the Falcs were only an arms stretch away from the front line and then they stopped, in front of them lay a carpet of dead and dying Falcs a cry went up from the archers they had prevailed. Shade grinned let the soldiers have this moment of victory because it probably would not come again soon. And so they advanced through the tunnel still further into the heart of the city until Alana called a halt. In front of her was a choice did she take the tunnel on the left, the tunnel on the right or split the army in two unfortunately the choice was made for her as a roar came from the tunnel on the left and a growl from the tunnel on the right. Goblins in the left Grells on the right suddenly behind her she heard a steady thumping getting faster and faster louder and louder, turning around she saw a rhino charging towards her she leaped out of the way just in time as it ran straight past her into the right hand side tunnel. She shook her head turning she looked at Gresham "would you kindly take your warriors down the tunnel that young Web has just charged and mop up after him" Gresham nodded a savage grin on his face then he lifted his head let out a tremendous roar and charged into the tunnel followed by the rest of his race. Almost instantly shrieks of pain and whimpers came from the tunnel Alana could imagine the Grells confusion but she cared not and lead the rest of the Alliance into the left tunnel to face the Goblins. **

**When Gresham and his warriors forced their way out of the tunnel it was to see a human Web sitting on top of a high rock with a massive grin on his face like he'd just been proclaimed ruler of the world or something around the rock were scattered at least another thirty grells and a few goblins. Gresham had to admit he defiantly did not want to get in the way of a charging rhino when he and his fellow minotaurs had charged down the tunnel it was to find not one uninjured Grell they had all been maimed in some way and were lucky to have been alive. The rhino had truly been the best choice for these small tunnels they walked up to Web and clapped him on the shoulder and grinned at him "well down kid just don't enjoy it to much" then he set off with his warriors to go and help Alana and the others. Web looked at the dead grells and goblins around him. It was true he had enjoyed killing these creatures but only because they were the enemy and if he did not kill them then they would kill him, he really had had no choice he turned to the side and threw up down the rock. Then he slid down on the other side and sat guard and the exit of the tunnel to catch any retreating Goblins and to stop any other creatures from getting behind the Minotaurs.**

**After only a matter of minutes Gresham, leading the Minotaurs and Alana plus his siblings and Sam leading the Alliance trooped out of the tunnel only a few of them were dirty or injured as the tunnel had been so small that only a few people could be at the front at once Web smiled and waved and then turned and ran as Zukes burst out of the crowd and charged at him, Zukes grabbed him by the throat and pinned him against the wall "what is your god damn problem Web? You could have got your self killed! You almost trampled Alana!" **

"**But I didn't Zukes I didn't" croaked Web **

"**Let him down Zukes, he has done nothing wrong" said Shade putting his hands on Zukes shoulders. Zukes let Web drop to the floor "just try to be more careful in the future Web please you're almost as bad as Tom"**

"**OI I heard that" shouted Tom running towards them and tripping over one of the Minotaurs axe handles. He came skidding to a halt at Zukes feet**

"**See what I mean" said Zukes picking Tom up and brushing him down.**

**As the army walked through the tunnels they came across the occasionally group of goblins or grells that were acting as guards or scouts in the tunnels. Eventually the army walked out into a massive cavernous underground hall, Shade stood next to Alana "this is the place right under the very center of the black city, over in that corner is the stairway to the…"**

**Alana turned to look at Shade "what is it" Shade motioned for her to be quiet "get the army into battle positions we have company fast approaching" with a wave of her hand Alana sent the message to her generals to prepare for battle, all along the line sounds of clanking armour and bows being stung could be heard.**

Chapter 15 the great fight

**Slowly the army began to hear a noise in the distance first Shade heard it then the elves then the Minotaurs then the centaurs and then the humans. It was a loud thumping sound coming closer and closer, then suddenly it stopped and a lone horseman came out from one of the tunnels across the cavern, he rode quickly across the cavern and came to a stop just out of bow range then standing on top of his horse he shouted "the she lord ruler of the monster realm herby states that if you do not surrender immediately you will be crushed under the feet of her armies and then fed to the crows"**

"**Ah nice and polite as always" muttered Gresham and then a strange thing happened tom stepped forward out of the crowd and fixed his gaze on the messenger "then you can tell the She lord ruler of nothing that when we are crushed we will stab your feet, and the crows that eat our bodies will choke and die for we will not die without a fight" and then with a quick motion with his arm Tom sent of bolt of fire hurtling towards the messenger it hit the ground in front of him the messenger looked at Tom a smirk on his face "you may want to practice on your aim child for I doubt a kid like you will last very long in the fight to come" Tom just looked at the messenger and the bolt of fire in front of him exploded "and you might want to get a new horse"**

**As Tom walked back into his place the loud thumping began again and out of the tunnel walked two large trolls each with a drum strapped to their chest. These drums were what were making the noise. As the trolls walked out of the tunnel behind them filed line upon line of goblins, grells, hags, fangs and loads of other creatures that the kids had never seen the likes of before. Gresham rolled his shoulders "here's were the fun begins then kids" Alice laughed and unslung her swords "bring them on" Sam stood next to Alice and unslung his swords also. He watched the creatures pouring out of the tunnel there were thousands of them!**

**Tom watched the creatures pouring out of the tunnel "well that's gotta stop" he thought and then raising his hands he concentrated on the rocks that made the roof of the tunnel. A creaking groaning kind of noise echoed round the cavern and the roof of the tunnel collapsed on top of the creatures sealing the entrance. Tom admired his handiwork Zukes patted him on the shoulder "nice work bro"**

"**Cheers" then the rocks were flung away from the entrance and a huge giant crawled out. When I saw crawled I mean on his hands and knees as soon as he got out of the tunnel he stood up and stretched his head was just touching the ceiling. From his back he brought a huge spiked club, the only good thing about this giant was that there were no more creatures coming out of the tunnel, he must have crushed them all trying to get out.**

**Tom sighed, so this was were it all happened a classic good versus evil fight. Unfortunately this wasn't a comic or cartoon this was real there was no guarantee that the good guys would win. That giant was defiantly going to cause a lot of problems, closing his eyes and muttering under his breath Tom began to recite a spell.**

**Alice looked up at the giant. It was massive at least seventy foot tall; there was no doubt that it would make all the difference in the fighting.**

**Sam watched the giant move towards him he studied it size, its movements and its reactions. He was trying to find a weakness in it, he couldn't find any.**

**Alana studied the giant; there was no doubt that the giant was going to take a massive chunk out of the army.**

**Everyone's attention was on the giant then suddenly it stopped and turned towards Tom it opened its mouth and a low pitched gurgling sound came from its mouth. As if it was trying to roar but couldn't then a grayish material spread out from its mouth and across its face every thing that the grey colour touched froze the grey material covered the head and then moved to the shoulders. That was when everyone realised that the grey material was stone; the giant was turning to stone! Finally the stone covered the whole of the giant and the She lords army could be seen to stop suddenly. Fair play to them though their main fighter had just been stopped in its tracks and killed!**

**Tom collapsed out of exhaustion, he turned his head and saw a pair of feet running towards him he felt himself be lifted up and carried away then put down, he looked over and saw that it was Shade who had carried him out of harms way. Over Shades shoulder Tom saw and heard the two armies smash into each other.**

**Gresham bellowed a war cry and slammed into a group of trolls, his giant war axe cleaving its way through muscles and bones alike. **

**Sam ducked a sword blade and stabbed the assailant in the stomach, then unsheathing another sword he span chopped a goblins head off and wrenched the first sword out of the hags body.**

**Web bellowed lowered his head and smashed into a troll. The centaurs were hacking away with their swords to either side of him. He tossed the dead troll into the air and watched it fall and land on a group of Pixies crushing them.**

**Alice ran into the fray with one thing on her mind getting out of this alive. She jumped over a dying goblin and landed on a trolls back, she chopped its head off and stayed on its body as it fell to the floor. Were she stepped off and decapitated two goblins with one blow.**

**Alana watched Shade carry Tom away and then turned and cursed, she'd let the battle get away from her. She ran into the battle and immediately was absorbed in the fighting.**

**Shade watched the fighting from a distance and sighed he unslung his bow and notched three arrows to the string. He saw a group of goblins detach themselves from the fighting and run in his direction. All of the goblins fell in quick succession so that it looked like they'd all been shot at the same time.**

**Zukes laughed as he levitated a troll and smashed it into three of its comrades. He turned and deflected a blow and then punched the goblin in the face. He felt one of his wards deflect a blow and tuned to see a confused Fang striking the force field. Zukes sent a pulse of energy smashing into the fang and then turned back to the goblin he'd just knocked out.**

**Tom sat up he could see that the alliance no matter how well it was fighting was being surrounded. He focused in on his siblings and saw they were fighting almost back to back, Web had managed to morph a gorilla and was dealing out some crazy punches so much so that even the trolls were weary of going near him. Tom watched the monsters completely encircle his friends he saw Gresham fighting fiercely against a group of trolls, Shade and Alana were fighting alongside each other, Alana's one blade killing just as many as Shades two. Tom searched the battlefield for Chanter but couldn't see him anywhere. Maybe he was just in the thick of the fighting of maybe worse. Tom searched the cavern for his sister and when he found her entered her mind "Oi sis how about using those swords properly now?" he saw his sister smile and jump onto a troll and run up his chest he watched her jump into the air and then her swords lit up with a blaze of fire that dazzled many of the monster she landed on. **

**Alice's jump prompted her brothers and friends to charge the enemy. And they smashed their way though to open ground. The two armies spun around to face each other off again. The monster army had taken massive casualties but was still massive and the alliance, well it had seen better days. Alana wiped the sweat off of her forehead and turned to Shade "do you think we will survive this?" Shade turned to look at her and smiled hugging her he smiled "as long as we stick together northing can hurt us" Alana smiled she realised just how much she had missed Shade. She detached herself from his arms "come on then let's show them just how much our swords hurt!" Shade laughed "that's the spirit" he stopped laughing suddenly and turned to the west of the cavern then shrugged and turned back to Alana "so how long do you think this rest bite is going to last then?" Alana pointed to the approaching monsters "I think it just ended" **

**Yet again the two armies met and yet again the fighting was fierce with both sides taking heavy loses. This time the monsters were unable to surround the alliance. Every time they tried they were pushed back by a very angry gorilla, a little blond boy who conjured up many a way of killing them and a girl whose swords danced with fire.**

**Shade lifted his head his ears pricked up he could hear howling from the tunnels to the left of the two armies, he fought his way over to Alana "we need to get everyone to the right of the cave now!" He said Alana killed the hag she was fighting and turned to look at him. She saw the look on his face and pulled a horn from her belt. She raised it to her lips the sound of it filled the cavern. The alliance started retreating straight away. Shade turned to look at the tunnels and saw light pouring out of them he fought his way over to were Gresham was laying wastes to some trolls "we're about to have some guests" he said nodding towards the tunnels.**

**Sam looked up as a howling filled the cavern. From the tunnels poured a storm of six foot, fur covered, claw bearing werewolves!**

**Gresham ran to meet them crushing a goblin under foot. As he ran he thought aloud "what are they doing here I haven't seen a werewolf in these parts for a good ten years" Shade who was running beside him replied "well hopefully they are fighting with us and not against us" Gresham ground to a halt in front of him stood a massive werewolf,**

(a hint at what it may look like)** from its belt were hung various trophies of battles gone by and two gleaming silver daggers. The werewolf's claws were already coated in blood and its fangs were bared. Gresham nodded to the werewolf "Hi Charon good to have you fighting alongside us again" The werewolf growled "Im not fighting with you Gresham" as if to emphasize his point he grabbed a solider who had been fleeing for his life by the throat and flung him to the floor breaking his spine. A look of shock crossed Gresham's face Charon started speaking again "Don't think too bad of us friend we're not on that blood suckers either." Then before Gresham could say anything Charon darted back into the battle. A horrendous scream filled the cavern as monsters and humans alike were killed at the claws and fangs of the werewolves. Gresham turned to Shade "let's get out of here now!" Shade nodded and they turned and began to make their way through the battle to Alana. "The werewolves are here" said Gresham "you don't say!" said Alana "their entrance wasn't exactly quiet" **

**Alana nodded "gather as many of our troops as you can and lead them to the surface" Shade and Gresham split up and charged back into the heat of battle. Alana watched them go. Shade ran through the battle until he found Tom, Web, Alice and Zukes "come on we're getting out of here" he shouted above the noise of howling and clashing metal. The others nodded, grim determination on their faces. For half an hour both Gresham and Shade collected as many of the alliances forces as they could find and led them to the stairways.**

**The street they were in looked like any normal city street, except that the houses were completely black and the roads were a lighter shade of black and the pavements were as black as black could get. Tom sighed "you'd think the citizens would get bored of black" the procession walked down the road with the occasionally grunt of surprise when one of the soldiers walked into a black lamppost. Alice thought it was quite funny and couldn't help giggling every time one of the soldiers walked into something. **

Chapter 16 the black palace

**The group walked through deserted street after deserted street until they eventually reached the steps of She lord's palace. Web whistled "that's one big palace!" Gresham grunted "let's get started then" they rushed up the stairs and pushed the doors open they walked into a grand entrance hall opposite them was another huge door and on their left and right were lots of little doors. "No guess at which door we're going through" muttered Tom. A loud splintering sound came from the door and the soldiers immediately formed a defensive position around Alana. The noise was followed by another and another, on the fourth a crack appeared down the door and on the fifth the two halves of the door were sent spinning into the entrance chamber. Out of the door emerged a large Cyclops. In both hands he held large spiked clubs. He spotted Shade and bellowed "little assassin why did you flee?" Shade looked at Alana "this is Gorm one of the She lords personal guards" she nodded "okay half you soldiers take the doors on the left the other half the right. We'll go forward. Kids go round the Cyclops we'll keep him busy" the soldiers split up and charged through the doors battle cries and the sound of clashing swords could be heard. Alana, Shade, Sam and Gresham walked slowly towards the Cyclops while the children ran round behind him. The good thing about Cyclopes is that they can only focus on one thing so while he was focused on Shade he didn't see the kids running round behind him. **

**Tom, Alice, Zukes and Web ran down the corridor that was behind the remains of the door. Surprisingly they met no enemies unless a few goblins count. As they emerged into a large circular room a humming filled all their ears. To start off with it was barley loud enough for them to hear and so they were able to concentrate on the room and its contents. In the far wall was a massive gem that seemed to radiate power, it was blue, green and red with a black circle in the middle that as the kids watched grew steadily bigger. The noise in their ears started to get louder until it was all they could hear. When they couldn't stand it any more it stopped and standing in front of them was a tall dark haired woman. She had a long black robe on that pooled on the ground in her hands she held two wickedly curved daggers that Alice couldn't help noticing were beautifully decorated, but the thing that struck the four kids about her the most was the two sharp fangs that extended from her lips. Alice drew her swords as did Zukes. Web changed into a gorilla and it was while he was changing that the She lord struck. The two daggers swung through the air like a knife through butter so that Web only had milliseconds to react and throw himself out of harms way. As he dived Alice started her attack on the She lord as did Zukes and Tom but to no avail. Every attack they threw at her she blocked and countered with one of her own, she was just to fast and agile. That's when Tom noticed the Gem in the wall when the She lord attacked the black spot in the middle seemed to glow. Tom dropped out of the melee as Web charged in. he rushed over to the Gem and raised his sword he heard a scream from behind him and felt a sharp pain in the small of his back and then more screams followed by a roar that echoed off the walls. A pain spread between Toms shoulder blades but he still stood and with all the strength he had he lifted his sword and stabbed the black spot right in the middle. Later on looking back he admitted that he hadn't really been sure if stabbing the gem would do anything but that he'd just thought it had been worth a try. As his sword sank into the gem the She lord let out a scream "What have you done?" the palace shuddered and cracks appeared on the gem splitting the colors up the She lord vanished in a puff of smoke as the three colours flew out of the wall and smashed their way out of the palace. Alice rushed over to where Tom was slumped against the wall. Web picked him up and motioned towards the hole in the wall were the gems had escaped "I think we'd better leave". The whole palace shuddered as a large earthquake rocked the city. "I don't wanna be underground while an earthquake is happening" Alice nodded "but were did the She lord go?" Zukes grimaced "She'll be back, that we can be sure of."**

**The kids clambered out of the hole onto a winding staircase; they followed this all the way down to the entrance where Shade was sitting on top of the dead Cyclops, he looked up as the others entered the hall. "what happened to Tom" he said "the she lord gave him a knock on the head" Said Web "but he'll live" Shade nodded "we need to get out of here now this place is gonna fall down around us pretty soon" they rushed through the city past soldiers fighting with goblins and such creatures, and ran straight down the stairway leading into the caverns below. When they got to the bottom of the stairway they stopped in amazement. Rocks were falling from the ceiling and crashing into the floor sending rubble flying across the cavern. Blood coated the floor with corpses and mutilated remains of what had once been human's. Werewolves stalked the cavern looking for any survivors and killing any they found. The group slowly moved around the outside of the cavern avoiding any werewolves and falling rocks. **

Chapter 17 the climax to end all climaxes

**Finally after what seemed like an age they reached the tunnel at the other side of the cavern and broke into a run. Shade lead the way running down tunnel after tunnel the sound of falling rocks all around them. They emerged just outside of the forest to see ten centaurs watching the black city. As they climbed out of the hole in the ground the black city slowly collapsed in on itself and then a massive earthquake shook the whole of the Monster realm and an ear splitting scream echoed across the valleys the group turned and ran for the mountains and the portal back home. As they ran through the forest Tom woke up and looked around. He could see Alice and Sam running behind him but they were upside down, he tried to turn around and found himself crashing to the ground with Zukes. "nice to know your awake Tom" Said Zukes "but do you think you could get a move on we're kind of in a rush here" Tom looked around and saw Shade, Alana, Gresham, Web, Alice and Sam all standing round him. They all looked like they could do with a bath and a good few weeks of rest then Tom heard a loud crunch and a tree fell down behind them then another and another. "MOVE!" shouted Shade "this place is falling down round us!" Tom hauled himself up and ran. As they ran the trees fell around them and cracks appeared in the ground. The whole realm was collapsing and they were in it!**

**Sam Scrambled up the last few meters of the mountain and turned to look down on the rest of the realm. The forest was now lying on the floor smashed with massive cracks running through it, the black city was no more and the great plains were breaking apart as he watched. On the mountain every monster that had managed to escape the city was climbing trying to reach the portal and escape certain death. Sam bent down and helped Alice up then a loud crack sounded behind him and he felt himself being pushed roughly over the side of the cliff. As he tumbled helplessly over the edge he managed to spin round and see who had pushed him. The She lord was standing on top of the mountain a massive sword in her hand and a cruel smirk on her face. Sam span round as he fell and glimpsed the others still climbing, he heard shouts and scream then felt a large hand grasp his arm and stop him in midfall. Sam wasn't sure what would have hurt more. Him falling to the ground in certain death or this, his arm being yanked out of its socket and Gresham pulling him to safety with it. Alice looked back from the side of the cliff and turned to face the She lord "you failed he's alive" She just shrugged "doesn't really matter, either way none of you are getting through this portal" Alice drew her swords and ignited them "well we'll just have to see about that won't we" As Alice attacked the She lord the others climbed over the edge and ran for the portal. They might not have even seen Alice's fight if Shade hadn't called out. And so as other monsters rushed past to safety they watched Alice fight the she lord. Alice took a step back and wiped the sweat from her forehead, she looked behind her and saw the others watching her "well why aren't you helping!" she exclaimed the she lord laughed "they cant its just me and you" as if to prove that point Tom ran towards Alice and seemed to run into an invisible wall. The she lord took this opportunity to attack and so Alice was forced onto the defensive. Behind the invisible wall the others watched on. Gresham looked nervously at the portal it was starting to shimmer a definite sign that this realm wasn't going to last much longer. "Err guys I really think we should go now" he said nervously "no we wait for Alice" said Web Zukes looked round at the portal and his shoulders slumped "Greshams right we don't have enough time, we either go now or stay here and die" "stay" said Tom with no hesitation Zukes looked at him with a pained look on his face "Tom your sister would want us to escape" Tom shook his head "im not leaving her, you guys go on im staying" A tear appeared in his eye "She'll win and then we'll jump through the portal after you" Alana looked at Shade "is there really nothing we can do to help her?" he shook his head "no the She lord has stopped us from helping at all there's nothing we can do" Alana sighed "poor girl" Shade nodded and turned his head away for a second. Meanwhile Zukes and Tom were still arguing, Gresham sighed and walked over to Tom and picked him up in his burly arms "I really hate to do this" he said and walked back through the portal "ALIC…" Shouted Tom as he disappeared through the portal**

**Gresham was followed by Sam then Alana then Shade and Web.**

**Zukes turned to watch Alice deflect an attack from the she lord and launch one of her own. He watched as the She lord smashed one of Alice's swords to the ground and stabbed at her. He watched as Alice rolled out of the way of the thrust and picked up her fallen sword. He watched as the two fought until the She lord finally found a gap in Alice's defenses and stabbed her in the stomach. As Alice fell to the ground the invisible wall collapsed and Zukes rushed forward to gather Alice in his arms "come on sis don't die on me" he said "as he moved the hair out of her face" The She lord sneered in contempt "did you really think she could beat me? She didn't stand a chance!" Zukes laid Alice down and turned to face the She lord "then let's see how I do" the she lord laughed as a massive rock rose up out of the ground and flew straight for her. She span round and batted it away as if it was just a fly. She turned round laughing "really is that all you've got?" Zukes lifted his hands up above his head and the plains, forest and the city rose 30,000 feet up into the air level with his hands. "THIS. IS WHAT I'VE GOT" he shouted and sent the whole realm flying at the She lord who let out a dreadful scream and raised her arms to shield her face. Zukes dropped his arms and gasped. He was standing on a small ledge of rock with Alice and the portal, around him was just empty space, no trees, no water, no mountains and most importantly no She lord, just empty black space. Zukes turned back to Alice who had a weak smile on her face "impressive" she said He smiled back at her "come on lets get you to a doctor" Alice shook her head and grimaced as pain shot up her side "leave me I wont get through the portal and even if I do it's a three day walk to the nearest hospital I'll have bled to death by then" Zukes bowed his head "are you sure?" She nodded "yes, now go! And take these." She motioned to her swords. "Give them to Tom" Zukes nodded and picked them up. He closed Alice's eyelids and kissed her on the forehead then stood up and made to leave then when he was right next to the portal he stopped and turned back "goodbye sis" he said and stepped through the portal.**

**Epilogue**

**Tom walked under the large stone archway a wooden staff in his hand and a large rucksack over his back. He looked down the main street of the city he would now call his home and smiled to himself. It was amazing how after the monster realm had collapsed in on itself and the turbulence had struck the human realm. How much technology had been lost, lamps lit the streets and the houses were made out of mud brick. People were still dressed in jeans and t-shirts but it all looked abit mix and match really. As Tom set his pack down a young boy walked past "excuse me kid but could you direct me to a hotel or somewhere I could stay" Tom asked him "sorry sir but I've got to go to the village square its the find a soul mate thingy majig today. "Okay I'll just follow you then" Tom said and picked up his pack. The boy ran ahead stopping every now and then for Tom to catch up. It had been a good seventy years since that fateful day in the monster realm so he wasn't exactly in the fittest of shape. Tom laughed as the boy ran backwards and tripped over a curbstone. Something in the boy reminded him of himself when he was younger. The boy led him to a large open square where it seemed the whole city was gathered. Tom looked up at the podium on the far side and felt his jaw drop. The little boy laughed "never seen a dragon before sir?" On the podium were three massive dragons! One was red and had a golden necklace round its neck. One was pink and looked female and the other was green with large spiny wings. Around their feet scampered hundreds of little dragons and as Tom watched one child at a time would walk up into the stadium and a little dragon would go over to play with him. Quite a lot of children didn't get a dragon friend and just walked off the podium the way they had come but Tom was glad to see the little boy who'd led him here make friends with a little red dragon. Tom smiled and looked up at the three large dragons and double tacked, had the green dragon just winked at him?! Tom shook his head, maybe things were going to get abit of getting used to around here.**


End file.
